My physical and spiritual roots

 

Although I was born in Cuba, I have a prototype Semitic figure and soul of the

 ancient inhabitants of Canaan, the Happy Hunting Ground.

 

The reason is that my great grandfather, from my mother side, was a French whose father (my great-great-grandfather) had come from Haiti with his slaves, fleeing the Revolution of Toussaint de Louverture, a Haitian General. So, it's not a coincidence that all my books are written in French language.

 

In the other hand, from my father side, my family root comes or passed from the region called Almagro, in Spain. Etymologically, the word Almagro (אלמגרו) came from the arab «al-magra» (red clay, arcilla roja, argile rouge) and from the Latin «almagrum». Coincidentally, the word Almagro has to do with the ground or agro, and my soul with the Happy Hunting Ground (Canaan). And more coincidentally, the word “Campoalegre”, the full name of my mother side, means “Happy Ground”. Just keep in mind that Moors and Arabs remained by the South of Europe (Spain and Portugal) for around 8 centuries, and these invaders (Muslim and Jewish / Gypsies [gitanos]), who interacted with Spanish and Portuguese inhabitants, were mainly involved in the trade of slaves.

 By the time, in different parts in the world, some regions were created, apparently by Almagro's. They settled in Argentina, and Peru was conquered by Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro.

In Matanzas, Cuba, there is a locality called Almagro, where my grandfather was born. He was somebody who has built two sugar factories. Later on, je bankrupted and died in poverty.

And from Encyclopaedia Judaica,

"Almagro, Spain

ALMAGRO is town in Castile, Spain, an administrative center of the Order of *Calatrava . Jews (Semites) probably settled there soon after the Christian reconquested the land (14th century). The Arabs (Semites) occupied the South of Europe for centuries.

It was one of only four communities in the area of Ciudad Real that existed in the 14th and 15th centuries. The community developed during the 15th century, when cities in the crown domains offered little security to their Jewish population, but from the amount of tax paid, it was a small one. During the 1460s it was able to construct a synagogue. There was also a sizeable *Converso group, and many Conversos from Ciudad Real took refuge there when they were attacked in 1449, 1469, and 1474. A number of the New Christians in Almagro were sentenced by the Inquisition in Ciudad Real and Toledo. The Jewish community was assessed to pay 800 maravedis (a medieval Spanish copper coin and monetary unit) in 1474 and 4,365 maravedis in 1485 to finance the war against Granada, and survived until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. There is no information on the location of the Jewish quarter. And the route from Portugal and Spain to the New World (America) inhabited by autochthonous natives was already initiated.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

H. Beinart, in: Sefer Yovel… Y. Baer (1960), 207–15; idem, Anusim be-Din ha-Inkviziẓyah (1965), index; Baer, Urkunden, pt. 2 (1936), 370; Suárez Fernández, Documentos, 65, 80.]

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved